Matched to current A Level subject curricula, Hay Levels are video masterclasses given by the world’s greatest teachers, thinkers and writers. From the black holes to the Great War to the big thaw, from Frankenstein to immunity to globalisation, and from sex to cosmology to crime; Hay Levels offer bite-size inspiration for curious students.

Videos will be released fortnightly throughout the school year on the Hay Levels YouTube channel (subscribe here) and shared across social media (#HayLevels), supplementing the growing bank of content already available online.

https://www.youtube.com/user/HayLevels
Hay Levels is a joint collaboration between Hay Festival and Hereford Sixth Form College, in partnership with the Tata group, giving students open access to some of the most renowned experts in their fields.

The first release of videos this academic year features:

Rosalind Rickaby on chemical equilibrium

Lawrence Krauss on cosmology

Marcus du Sautoy on algebra

Sarah Churchwell on Edith Wharton

Sir Nicholas Hytner on Hamlet

Michael Rosen on Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Pardoner’s Tale

Lord Digby Jones on profit

Catherine Barnard on Brexit

Anne-Marie Imafidon MBE on binary numbers

Philippe Sands on international crime

Peter Singer on utilitarianism

Now in its third year, the Hay Levels project was inspired after mathematician Marcus du Sautoy gave an impromptu masterclass to a group of A Level students on his way to speak at Hay Festival. Since then, speakers appearing at Hay Festival events in Wales and around the world have been invited to contribute to the growing bank of free resources online.

Peter Florence, Director of Hay Festival, said: Our work to bring writers and readers together in conversations and debate continues to develop digitally. Hay Levels extend the great breadth of knowledge of Hay Festival experts to A Level students across the country. We hope they will be widely used and shared and are deeply grateful to these fabulous academics that have supported us so far. And, of course, while these resources have been designed with A Level students in mind, it’s not to say everyone can’t learn something from them.

Dr David Landsman OBE, Executive Director of the Tata group, said: “Tata shares Hay Festival’s commitment to education and skills and we are proud to partner with the Hay Levels for the third time this year. Education is key to success in everything Tata does, which is why we are continuously investing in skills, not only for our companies, but also in the communities we work in. We hope that that this year’s videos will help to inspire and educate the engineers, business leaders, academics and creative thinkers of the future.”

Highlights from the first two series of Hay Levels include: Sarah Churchwell on Gatsby; David Crystal on Pragmatics; Richard Dawkins on Irreducible Complexity; Stephen Fry on Exam Tips; Angie Hobbs on Platonic Ethics and Laura Bates on Rape.

Hay Levels is part of the wider Hay Festival education work, which includes free Schools Days programming, Hay Academy, and Hay Compass.

For more information on Hay Levels or Hay Festival, please visit hayfestival.org.